Dozens injured in tornadoes across southern Louisiana

Six tornadoes hit New Orleans and the wider south Louisiana area on Tuesday, injuring around 40 people, destroying homes and leaving 16,000 buildings without power.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards has declared a state of emergency, and deployed State Police and the Louisiana National Guard to support the New Orleans police.

"The width of the devastation was unlike any that I have seen before," Gov. Edwards told a news conference. "When you see it from the air you're even more impressed that so few people were injured and that nobody's life was lost."

Destroyed and damaged homes are seen in this aerial photo Credit:
Gerald Herbert/AP

Search and rescue operations continued, and there are currently no reports of any deaths.

There has not yet been any estimates on the cost of the damage, as officials have stated that it is too early to assess.

NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, which is working toward building the Orion spacecraft, was hit by one of the tornadoes at 11.25 CST (17.25 GMT) on Tuesday, with reports of two building and several external structures being damaged, along with 200 cars.

At 11:25am CT, a tornado impacted our Michoud Facility in New Orleans. Only minor injuries reported & personnel are being accounted for (1)

The Mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu, said “it's devastating. There are a lot of families that lost everything they have." He added that the experience was akin to “an elephant stomping on your house.”

Louisiana has been hit by a series of natural disasters over the past year, with flooding in March 2016 killing 4, and again in August killing 13. The floods were described as “worse than Hurricane Katrina” and 20,000 people needed to be evacuated.

Gov. Edwards said that the state has had its “share of natural disasters” and that there were “budgetary constraints." However, this would “not prevent the state from doing everything we need to do.” He had been due in Washington D.C. this week to convince Congress to increase federal aid funds.

Local resident reacts as she surveys the damageCredit:
Gerald Herbert/AP